Jennifer closed her eyes. Damn Dolores and her big mouth. If she had told Lee that Jennifer was pregnant, Jennifer was going to take the first plane back to Philly and tie her to the Penn Central tracks.
They surveyed each other in silence. Lee looked wonderful, as usual, immaculate in designer jeans and a white turtleneck sweater that flattered his dusky skin. By contrast, Jennifer, exhausted and filthy, felt like the television illustration for a person with an Excedrin headache.
“May I come in?” he asked pointedly.
Her mind whirling with a dozen questions, Jennifer stepped aside just as her newly installed telephone began to ring. “Excuse me,” she said.
What now? Jennifer thought as she moved to answer it Lee stood in the middle of the room, looking around. There wasn’t much to see except piles of cardboard boxes and general confusion.
It was Dolores. “Oh, Jenny, I’m so glad I finally got you. I’ve been trying for two days, but you didn’t have a number. Lee Youngson was here, he made me tell him where you were, and I’m afraid he’ll—”
“You’re a little late, Dolores,” Jennifer interrupted her. “He’s standing in my living room.”
Jennifer eyed Lee who was staring, mystified, at the poster Jennifer had tacked to the wall. It was the Middle English version of the Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a departing gift from Mrs. Mason.
Dolores groaned. “Oh, God, I was afraid of that. Jennifer, please forgive me, but he was so upset, I thought he was going to kill me.”
“It’s all right, Dolores,” Jennifer said wearily. “It doesn’t matter.”
Strangely enough, it didn’t. Everything else had gone wrong; having Lee show up to find her looking like an underage bag lady was just another calamity to add to a long list.
“I didn’t tell him you were pregnant,” Dolores said piously. There was a pause. “Though if I were you, I—”
“Thank you, Dolores,” Jennifer said in a strong voice. “It was thoughtful of you to call. I’ll be in touch. goodbye.” She dropped the receiver back into its cradle.
“I take it that was Dolores,” Lee said.
“Yes.”
“Calling to warn you of the impending arrival of the rampaging savage,” he added.
Jennifer said nothing.
“Oh, well, I’m glad to see she survived her last encounter with me. She was looking strangely pale when I left; I fear I’ve lost a fan.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the wall. “What is that? German?”
“The Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in the original Middle English. It looks and sounds like German. Old English does, too, only more so.”
He nodded, watching her. “I wondered why it seemed familiar.”
Jennifer met his eyes, asking herself why she was babbling about Chaucer when she wanted to fling herself on Lee and kiss him until he couldn’t breathe. But he mustn’t know that. She crossed her arms on her stomach, concealing it from his sharp eyes.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Don’t beat around the bush, Jennifer,” he said sarcastically. “Come directly to the point.”
She waited, unmoving.
Lee propped one foot, encased in a leather topsider, on an overturned box and leaned forward with his arms folded on his upraised knee. “I’ve been accepted to medical school. I’m retiring from football and starting at Temple University in the fall.”
Jennifer felt the sting of tears behind her eyes. He had done it He had really done it Her throat closed with emotion.
“That’s wonderful, Lee,” she managed to get out “Congratulations.”
His black eyes bored into hers. “You’re responsible, you know. You convinced me to try. Without your encouragement, I never would have had the nerve.”
Jennifer turned away, biting her lip hard to hold back the tears. “Nonsense,” she said in an approximation of a normal tone. “You would have come to the same realization of what you wanted sooner or later; I just brought it into the open faster, that’s all.”
There was no reply from the man behind her. “Is that what you came to tell me?” she asked, coughing slightly to disguise the hoarseness of her voice. That couldn’t be all. He had bludgeoned Dolores, tracked her down like Sherlock Holmes, and flown thousands of miles to deliver this message? He could have telephoned or written. She was puzzled.
“Well, yes…” he said, sounding confused. Then she was suddenly seized by the shoulders and hauled around to face him.
“Goddamnit,” he said between gritted teeth, “why do I always allow you to do this to me? That wasn’t what I came to say at all.” He stared down at her, his stark features filled with emotion.
“Why did you leave your job with the Freedom?” he demanded.
“I wanted a change of scenery, warmer weather,” Jennifer said evasively. “What business is it of yours?”
“I’ll tell you what business of mine it is,” Lee said grimly. “I think you left because of me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Jennifer said, trying to shrug free of his viselike grip.
“I think you wanted to be gone before I reported back to camp next fall. You didn’t know I would be starting school, and you resigned so as not to see me again,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken.
“You think I would give up a job I worked years to get just to avoid a few uncomfortable moments with you?” she said scornfully. “I’ve heard of giant egos, but yours must be the size of an airplane hangar.”
“That’s not the reason,” he said calmly, holding her fast despite her fruitless efforts to wriggle free. “You gave up the job because you’re in love with me and you couldn’t stand to be around me and not have me.”
Jennifer stared at him, dumbfounded.
His beautiful eyes became lambent and full of feeling. “At least, I hope so, because I came here to tell you I love you and want to take you back with me.
The silence was deafening.
“I said I love you,” Lee repeated. “Do you love me?” It was issued like a challenge.
No response.
Lee shook her gently. “Aren’t you speaking English today?”
Jennifer burst into tears.
Lee sighed and released her. “Look, something is wrong here. When I say I love you, you’re supposed to say ‘I love you, too’ and smother me in an ardent embrace.”
Jennifer sat on an orange crate and bawled.
“Oh, fine,” Lee said, throwing up his hands. “What am I supposed to derive from this?”
When she continued to cry, he sat down next to her and waited for the storm to pass, surveying her with an expression of mixed exasperation and tenderness. As she subsided to an occasional sniffle, he said, “Does that mean you love me, or not?”
Jennifer wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Of course I love you, you jackass.”
She didn’t see his long, deep, silent sigh of relief. In a voice that was not quite steady he said, “I see. Don’t you think it would be more appropriate to say, ‘Of course I love you, my darling’? You jackass’ hardly seems the proper form of address.”
She looked up at him from under long, spiky lashes matted with tears. “Are you going to pick a fight about that, now? Besides, anybody else but you would have realized it long before this.” She hiccuped.
His eyes widened. “Oh, is that so?”
Jennifer took the bandanna off her head and mopped her cheeks with it. “Yes, that’s so.”
He took the kerchief from her and finished the job. “Perhaps you’ll be kind enough to tell me how I was supposed to detect your mad passion for me when you were throwing me out of your apartment This was followed, as I recall, by your packing up and moving 1,300 miles away without even a goodbye. I emerged from the hospital to find that you had vanished.”
“After you convinced me there was no future for us.”
Lee dropped his eyes. “Forgive me, Jen. I was wrong. I had a lot of time to think while I was laid up, to reevaluate everything. I guess the scare made me realize what really mattered to me.” He paused. “Joe and Dawn told me how you came to the hospital.” He looked up again. “Nothing is as important as you and me, and our love.”